Wrong Decisions Introduction
In our message series Need Direction? we’ve been talking about how to make decisions. When we make a decision, we can make a right decision or a wrong decision. Sometimes, people are so afraid of making a wrong decision, that they fail to make any decision at all. Most of the time, not making a decision is often the same as making a wrong decision. God places us in situations where we must get His guidance and act to make the right decision. God wants to guide us by the voice of His Spirit to make the right decisions.
Psalm 32:8-9 (NIV) I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.
In other words, God wants you to be able to listen to and follow the Spirit’s whisper. He doesn’t want us to be like an animal that has no understanding and who must be controlled by external circumstances. However, sometimes, we don’t listen to God’s guidance. Sometimes we are stubborn and want to go our own way. Sometimes we don’t believe God and trust He wants the best for us. At those times, we may fail and make a wrong decision. A wrong decision is a decision that is not in keeping with God’s plan for your life. A wrong decision is a decision that is not following God’s guidance or direction for your life.
Today, we’re going to talk about Wrong Decisions. We’re going to answer questions like: How do wrong decisions happen? How can we guard against wrong decisions? What can we do when we realize we’ve made a wrong decision? Anybody here ever made a wrong decision? Oftentimes, we think we’re making a right decision and then all of a sudden it dawns on us, Uh Oh, that was a wrong decision. How did I manage to get myself into this mess? How can I get out of this mess? Will God forgive me? God’s Word has the answers for our questions about wrong decisions.
Before we get into our passage for today, let’s think a bit about the relationship between God’s plan for our lives and God’s promises.
2 Peter 1:3-4a (NIV) His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,
God’s power has given you everything you need to live the life God has planned for you. That plan for your life can only be fulfilled through God’s great and precious promises. As we believe in God’s promises for our lives and make right decisions, we see His plan for our lives move forward.
Today, we’re going to learn more about wrong decisions, so that can avoid them or recover from them and move forward on God’s path for our life. Today, we’re going to learn about wrong decisions from the life of Abram.
God has a promise for you
Genesis 15:4 (NIV) Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.”
When Abram came into the land of Canaan, God promised him that he would make him into a great nation. However, Abram couldn’t understand how that would happen, because he and Sarai were childless. Since, they were childless, their heir would be Abram’s servant, Eliezer. God had another plan and promise. In verse 4, God promises Abram that he himself would have a son as an heir. At this time, Abram was 75 years old and Sarai was 65 years old. God’s promise for Abram was the focal point of God’s plan for his life. Just as God had a promise for Abram, so God has a promise for your life. God’s promise is that …
You are blessed to be a blessing
Genesis 15:5 (NIV) He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Not only would Abram be a father, but God promises him that he would be a father of children as numerous as the stars of the heavens. Abram would be the father of a great nation, a nation that would be blessed by God, so that they could be a blessing to the whole earth. God’s blessing of Abram was not just for Abram to enjoy, but so that Abram might bless many other people through his children. God’s promised blessing on our lives is so that we might be a blessing to many others. Your responsibility is to …
Believe God’s promise for you
Genesis 15:6 (NIV) Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Abram, believed God’s promise, even though it seemed impossible for a 75 year old man with a 65 year old wife. Was it easy to believe God? Not at all. Yet he believed and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. God’s whole plan for Abram’s life was wrapped up in the promise of a son, from whom a nation would be formed.
As God had a promise for Abram’s life, so God has promises for your life. As God’s promise for Abram had to do with children, so God’s promises for our lives have to do with children as well. God created you to make a difference for eternity. How can we make a difference for eternity? It’s not going to happen by simply having large bank account or large home. It’s not going to happen by having a great job or hobby or retiring early. To make a difference for eternity, you’ve got to influence people for Jesus Christ.
If God has blessed you with children, it begins with your own physical children and grandchildren. Doing your part so that each one becomes a believer in Jesus. But God is not just interested in physical children, each believer can also have spiritual children. A spiritual child is someone that you’ve had a part in leading them to become a believer in Jesus Christ. Some spiritual children come from your own physical children, but others come people who are not part of your physical family. God’s promises for your life involve seeking first His kingdom. God’s kingdom is made up of children that He loves. God’s plan for each of our lives is different, but I believe that all involve multiplying spiritual children for Jesus. In fact, each one of us who are believers in Jesus Christ is one of those stars that God promised Abram. We enter into Abram’s promise as we live our lives to see more children come into God’s family and shine like stars in the heavens.
Your faith in God’s promise will be tested
Genesis 16:1 (NIV) Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar;
Now, let’s fast forward ten years. Abram is now 85 years old, Sarai is 75. If it was difficult ten years ago to have children, by now it seemed impossible. The child that God had promised did not seem to be coming. So, the faith of Sarai and Abram was being tested by the promise not being fulfilled quickly and in a way that seemed logical to them. So, they began to doubt that God would or could fulfill His promise. Perhaps they could help God out.
Doubt leads to wrong decisions
Genesis 16:2-3 (NIV) so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.
Sarai begins by blaming God for keeping her from having children. So, she tells her husband Abram to sleep with her maidservant Hagar in order to produce a child. This was a common practice at the time called surrogate marriage, however, it was not in accordance with God’s plan and purpose for marriage. As we’ll see as we go through this story, God would not bless this wrong decision and it would lead to disastrous consequences. What led to this wrong decision? Doubt that God would keep His promise. His promise was that a child would come from Abram and Sarai.
Wrong decisions damage relationships
Genesis 16:4-6 (NIV) He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
Immediately, we see all kinds of relationship issues stemming from this wrong decision. Hagar, now pregnant with Abram’s child, began to despise Sarai. Sarai, on the other hand, now blamed Abram for her problems with Hagar. Abram gave Sarai permission to mistreat Hagar, which she did and Hagar fled. The relationships of the whole household were damaged with each person having difficulties with the others. Not only do wrong decisions often have immediate consequences …
Wrong decisions have lasting consequences
Hagar fled to the wilderness and there …
Genesis 16:11-12 (NIV) The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
God told Hagar that she would have a son named Ishmael. God would make this son into a great nation, yet this son and his descendants would be hostile toward Abram and his descendants. The descendants of Ishmael were the Arabs. Ishmael is considered the forefather of Muhammad who founded the religion of Islam, practiced by most Arabs. As you know, thousands of years later, much of the tension in our world is between the Arabs and Israel, between Islam and Christianity. Wrong decisions have lasting consequences.
You face the same type of testing of God’s promises for your life as Abram did. The Bible, God’s Word, is filled with promises for your life. Promises that will lead to blessing in your life, so that you can bless others and see more people come to Jesus. Yet, we often doubt that these promises apply to us, they don’t seem logical, just as having a child at 80 years old didn’t seem logical to Abram and Sarai. What are some the promises that we doubt? We doubt that God can really use us to lead people to Jesus, so we choose not to witness. We doubt that God blesses those who tithe 10% of their income, so we give less, convinced that we can’t afford to give more. We doubt that we have the ability or the time to serve others, so we don’t. We doubt that we can really make a difference in our world for Jesus, so we waste our time in things that don’t make a difference for eternity.
But even if we’ve doubted in the past, even if we’ve made a lot of wrong decisions, all is not lost because …
God gives second chances
Let’s fast forward our story another 15 years. Abram is now 99 years old and still has not had a son. Ishmael is now 14 years old and living with Abram and Sarai.God appears to Abram again and promises again that Abram will be the father of many nations. He changes Abram’s name to Abraham, which means father of many nations. What was Abraham’s response?
Genesis 17:17-18 (NIV) Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarai bear a child at the age of ninety?” And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”
God was giving Abraham a second chance to believe and he was still doubting God. Perhaps Ishmael was the son of promise. Yet this was not God’s plan or promise.
God will help you overcome your doubts
Genesis 17:19 (NIV) Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
God says, no Abraham, you and your wife Sarah, whose name was also changed, would have a son named Isaac. Through this son of promise, God’s promise would ultimately be fulfilled. God patiently helped Abraham and Sarah overcome their doubt and believe God’s word of promise. Finally …
Faith brings the promise to pass
Romans 4:18 (NIV) Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”
At the age of 100 for Abraham and 90 for Sarah, a son Isaac was born. Paul, in the book of Romans, tells us that Abraham finally believed God and through his faith in the power of God, the promise came to pass. So, although both Abraham and Sarah struggled with their doubts over the years, their faith was not broken. They believed God and the promise came to pass.
Even if you’ve made some wrong decisions in life, even if you’ve doubted God’s promises, God is the God of second chances for you, just as He was for Abraham. God continues to speak, even when we doubt. You have a choice to make: should I listen to God or to me doubts and fears. Listen to and believe God, even though it might not make a lot of sense. Eventually, His promises will be fulfilled in your life.
What if you’ve made a lot of wrong decisions? What if your life is full of bad consequences because of those decisions? It’s never too late to begin to believe God’s promises. God is the God of second, third and fourth chances. His promise of your life remains. Just reach out and believe it.
Message Audio, Outline & Study Guide
Need Direction? Message Series
[post_connector_show_children slug=”series-messages” parent=”992″ link=”true” excerpt=”false”]